Tamarac's "Brotherhood" moves on

The game was over and the Tamarac High boys’ basketball team had just emerged from its meeting room.

Junior center Brent Matazinsky had peeled his jersey top off, revealing a black T-shirt with one word in red lettering — ”Brotherhood.”

“Stay together and play as a team. That is our motto this year and for this tournament,”
Matazinsky said.

Tamarac stayed together Tuesday night, using its inside power with the 6-foot-3 Matazinsky, 6-3 senior Matt Dixon and 6-4 junior Steve Hunt to register a 56-37 victory over Hudson in the opening round of the Section II Class B Tournament.

The triumph marked just the third time the Bengals (14-7) have advanced to the second round in school history. The others came in 1967 and 1991. Tuesday’s win also was the Bengals first home playoff win since 1991.

Tamarac, a dangerous No. 8 seed, will meet top-seeded Ichabod Crane (20-1) Saturday at the University at Albany.

The gym at Tamarac is filled with sports banners of all the various sports team’s championships. Soccer dominates the landscape at the school.

The boys’ basketball banner shows just two listings: league titles in 1967 and 1976. That’s it.

“We don’t even have the word ‘sectional champion’ on that banner,” Tamarac coach Eric Medved said.

The Bengals may not win a sectional title this season, either. One thing is certain, though. If a team knocks them out of the sectionals, that squad is going to know it was in a fight.

Tamarac owns wins of the top two finishers in the Wasaren League. The Bengals beat league champion Hoosic Valley in their first league game and knocked off Cambridge in the second of two meetings.

Tuesday night, Tamarac shook off a horrendous start where it missed eight shots and turned the ball over five times before Matazinsky (14 points and 13 rebounds) scored with 39 seconds left in the first quarter.

“We just fought through it and kept our composure,” Matazinsky said.

The Bengals did an excellent job of limiting quality scoring opportunites to Hudson senior guard Lyle Hughes (14 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots) after he scored the Bluehawks’ first six points. Hughes, Hudson’s top scorer, connected on 5 of 18 shots overall and just 1 of 11 after intermission.

Defense and rebounding are team strengths for the Bengals. Those two elements largely are the reason why Tamarac will be playing on Saturday.

The Tamarac-Ichabod Crane is definitely one of the more compelling quarterfinal contests.